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Pols weigh push to raise smoking age

By Katie Lannan, State House News Service

Updated:
11/20/2015 08:51:11 AM EST

BOSTON -- Building on similar measures adopted by nearly 80 communities across Massachusetts, lawmakers are considering a statewide ban on selling tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, to people under age 21.

The three-year increase in the legal smoking age is among a series of provisions the Legislature's Public Health Committee is weighing for a comprehensive bill aimed at curbing youth nicotine addiction, committee co-Chairman Sen. Jason Lewis said Thursday. The committee hopes to put forward a bill "in the near future," he said.

"Most retailers and convenience stores are responsible and they don't sell tobacco products to minors, and so many of those products that young people are getting are coming from their older peers," Lewis said. "If you increase the age to 21, that means the 15- and 16-year-olds aren't getting tobacco products from the 18- and 19-year-olds. That's why that strategy is quite effective."

Lewis and Rep. Kate Hogan, the Public Health Committee's House chairwoman, on Thursday welcomed anti-tobacco advocates to the Statehouse to mark the 40th annual Great American Smokeout, an event created by the American Cancer Society to encourage people to quit smoking.

A day earlier, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced the city will begin working to raise to 21 its age for the purchase of tobacco and nicotine products.

In 2005, Needham became the first town in the country to raise its smoking age to 21.

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Since then, 77 other Massachusetts municipalities have followed suit, according to the Massachusetts Municipal Association. Four communities-- Hingham, Holbrook, Newburyport and Sudbury -- have raised the age to 19.

If Massachusetts were to raise its smoking age to 21, it would join Hawaii as the only states to take that step. Alaska, Alabama, Utah and New Jersey have set the age for tobacco sales at 19.

The committee is looking at data, including Needham's statistics on the drop in youth smoking rates over the past 10 years, in hopes of identifying proven strategies for reducing teen tobacco use, Lewis said. Other steps the committee is weighing as part of potential legislation include "responsible regulation of e-cigarettes" and a prohibition of tobacco sales by pharmacies, Lewis said.

At the local level, 128 cities and towns have banned pharmacy tobacco sales. Last year, CVS Corp. announced it would stop selling cigarettes and tobacco across all its locations.

The e-cigarette restrictions the committee is looking at include adding e-cigarettes to the list of tobacco products that could not be purchased by people under 21, banning the use of e-cigarettes in smoke-free indoor public places like schools, workplaces and restaurants, and requiring that the liquid nicotine used in e-cigarettes be packaged in childproof containers. Regulations instituted in September set the sale age for e-cigarettes at 18 in Massachusetts.

"E-cigarettes have exploded in popularity among teenagers," Lewis said. "The problem with that, of course, is that e-cigarettes are a nicotine-delivery system, so once people start using e-cigarettes, they get addicted to nicotine the same way they would from cigarettes or tobacco mints, and then they're down a pathway to using not just e-cigarettes, but also in many cases other tobacco products."

Lewis said the committee has been talking with convenience-store owners, representatives from the tobacco industry and others who might be affected by stiffening state's smoking laws. He said about 70 e-cigarette shops have opened in Massachusetts in the past few years, and that he's been visiting some to learn about their business practices.

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